I made my own butter, once. Well, I made the attempt. It was for a tea party in the back garden of my house in England. I had made banana bread and apricot jam and as I had seen fresh butter made very simply on a BBC cooking show, I thought it would top off this homemade extravaganza with style.

The recipe [I found a US version just now] called for milk, a wooden clothespin, and a jar. The process: add milk and clothespin to jar, close and shake until whipped butter begins to collect on the wood. For some reason, I thought they had said you could use skim milk, so I did that. No surprise [well not now] it never came together. After the party I figured it out it was whipping cream that was needed. Sigh. No homemade butter.

Flash-forward many years later, my dream of homemade butter still lingers and my memory of my butter-disaster still festers. The NYT has come to the rescue with an article about homemade butter. The recipe is a bit more complex as it calls for more equipment but basically the concept is the same: whip whipping cream past the whipped point onto the butter point.

Comments

I made homemade butter for the first time in 2nd grade. I think it was a traditional thing to do in NYC public schools. We ate it with matzo. The best butter I'd ever had. I still love fresh butter and matzo to this day. I now make homemade butter about twice a year. Just cause it's so easy. And you don't need a kitchenaid mixer. Just a big clean mayo jar (or other jar with a secure seal). Dump in a pint of heavy cream (fresh from the farmers market if you can get your hands on it) and shake like a madwoman till you hear the reassuring "chuchunk" of the butter coming together. A few more shakes and you have a nice ball of butter swimming in sweet, sweet buttermilk.

Making homemade butter is also an amazing children's party trick or good way of getting your Thanksgiving Dinner party guests to unify. It takes about 15 minutes of vigorous adult shaking (or 30 minutes of children shaking) to get the butter formed. I've done this twice at children's parties and you'd be amazed at how mesmerized the kids become (and the adults as well).

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SLOANE MILLER, MFA, MSW, LMSW

ABOUT ME:

I have had food allergies my entire life. I'm anaphylactic to all tree nuts and salmon; I’m also allergic to eggplant and some types of melons; and OAS to many fruits and vegetables. I live a full life and I am committed to helping other people with food allergies do the same.

Whether through my award-winning blog Please Don’t Pass the Nuts™, my critically acclaimed self-help book Allergic Girl: Adventures in Living Well with Food Allergies, one-on-one counseling with adults and families dealing with food allergies, public speaking engagements or recipe development for national food manufacturing brands, I offer experienced insights and guidance on how to get more out of a life lived with food allergies.

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The content on this blog is based on my personal experiences and intended solely for entertainment purposes only. I am not a medical professional and the content on this blog is not to be considered medical advice.